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Ben Stein: Great article on Jews, Christians and Americans ~~~~~~~~~~~ The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready...

SAN FRANCISCO — California's highest court considered this week whether doctors' religious beliefs give them the right to withhold medical treatment from lesbians and gay men, a group specifically protected under state anti-discrimination laws. Taking up a case that has pitted the promise of religious liberty against the guarantee of equal access, the state Supreme Court heard oral arguments May 28 in a lawsuit brought by a woman who claims her Christian doctors refused to perform artificial insemination on her because of her sexual orientation.

The California Supreme Court's historic declaration that same-sex couples can marry will be tested in November when voters face a measure that would enact a constitutional ban on such marriages – and two new polls indicate that it will be a close one. The court set aside a 2000 ballot measure that barred recognition of same-sex marriages but, the new polls indicate, voters have been moving the other way. A Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters, taken on May 20-21, a few days after the Supreme Court decision, found that 51 percent disapproved of the Supreme Court's decree, while...

I ADMIT IT: I'm no environmentalist. But I like to think I'm something of a conservationist. No doubt for millions of Americans this is a distinction without a difference, as the two words are usually used interchangeably. But they're different things, and the country would be better off if we sharpened the distinctions between both word and concept. At its core, environmentalism is a kind of nature worship. It's a holistic ideology, shot through with religious sentiment. "If you look carefully," author Michael Crichton observed, "you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian...

They say we are tired of culture wars. Tell that to the California Supreme Court, which didn't sound tired at all when it lobbed a big, fat hand grenade into the marriage debate. Ideas have consequences. And the California court endorsed two big, brand-new, very bad ideas. The first idea is that the internationally recognized human right to marry includes same-sex marriage. In U.S. constitutional law, fundamental human rights are those deeply rooted in our traditions. Not even in Massachussetts or in New Jersey could the courts quite stomach the idea that same-sex marriage is deeply rooted in those traditions....

Americans seem mesmerized by the word "change." And, by golly, they sure got it last week from the California Supreme Court. It is difficult to imagine a single social change greater than redefining marriage from opposite sex to include members of the same sex. Nothing imaginable -- leftward or rightward -- would constitute as radical a change in the way society is structured as this redefining of marriage for the first time in history: Not another Prohibition, not government taking over all health care, not changing all public education to private schools, not America leaving the United Nations, not rescinding...

Six points that I feel need to be made about this ruling: 1. This Is Social Liberalism By Judicial Fiat - This ruling came from none other than the Supreme Court of California, just as Massachusets allowed gay marriage by judicial fiat. Four justices (out of seven) should not be allowed to drastically change the entire definition of an institution that has existed for thousands of years of Judeo-Christian civilization and hundreds of years of American jurisprudence. Proponents of gay marriage cannot convince citizens of a single state to allow for same-sex marriage to be for anything but a man...

Are you a joyful bride-to-be? An eager (or nervous!) groom? Perhaps you have a son or daughter getting married this spring or summer? Perhaps a beloved grandchild? Or maybe a lifelong friend? The peak of wedding season is arriving and many of us have a special acquaintance or family member ready to “tie the knot” in a beautiful marriage ceremony of thrilling romance and holy commitment. So what does any of this have to do with the law? Why am I raising the subject of weddings in my Christian legal column? I’m writing to brides and grooms and those close...

Original Free Republic LinkFree Republic:Pope Benedict XVI Pays Historical Visit To The Park Street Synagogue

Pope Benedict XVI paid a 22-minute visit to the Park East Synagogue — the first papal trip to a United States synagogue — on Friday afternoon. He presented the synagogue with a medieval Jewish manuscript from the Vatican library and received three gifts: a seder plate, a Passover haggadah and a box of matzoh. The pope offered warm remarks and was showered with praise and music, but in a brief, three-minute address, he did not address the Holocaust, anti-Semitism or historic tensions between Jews and the Catholic Church. The pope entered the temple As the choir sang “Sh’ma Yisrael,” a...

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the USA was drawn into the worldwide war against the left-wing, heterophobic fascism of Hitler's National Socialist German Workers (NAZI) Party. Then, just like now, Jews were targeted by a genocidal movement. In 1941, the USA took a stand against evil. Now, in 2001, we are taking a stand against evil again. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the USA was drawn into the worldwide war against terrorism by the attack on the World Trade Center. Israel is fighting that same war by virtue of having endured countless attacks by a number of anti-semitic terrorist groups. ...

in English Translation Fortress Press 2001 Editorial Board of the International Q Project Stanley D. Anderson Robert A. Derrenbacker, Jr. Christoph Heil Thomas Hieke Paul Hoffmann Steven R. Johnson John S. Kloppenborg Milton C. Moreland James M. Robinson Preface The Sayings Gospel Q is an archaic collection of sayings ascribed to Jesus, even older than the Gospels in the New Testament. In fact, it is the oldest Gospel of Christianity. Yet it is not in the New Testament itself. Rather, it was known to, and used by, the Evangelists of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and then lost from...

Poll: Do you think Islam is a serious threat to our Judeo-Christian heritage?

The best-known invocation in Christianity has its roots firmly in Jewish tradition. And, some believe the very public liturgy was meant as a protest against fixed, statutory, public prayer. Maybe McGuinty has a point Lord, what a fuss over a prayer. "So plainly simple, natural, and spontaneous," the Catholic Encyclopedia lauds the Lord's Prayer, yet, at a mere 57 words (in the original Greek), such a magnet for controversy in Ontario. The prayer's fall from public grace began in 1988, when the Ontario Court of Appeal, citing the province's multicultural nature, struck down a regulation that required public schools to...

America is the greatest expression of the spirit of Freedom and Liberty found in Judeo-Christian theology that the world has ever seen. But we are not there yet, we are on the road to a true expression of the Kingdom of God on earth, and America, although clearly a leader of nations, is just one of the many Nations that have a Manifest Divine Destiny. God is into Nations, and He has a plan for nations, just as He has a plan for individuals. I recommend you peruse the COA Library in the links above, and download some of the...

Will Conservatism survive 2008? By George Shadroui Conservatism is a big enough tent to include many differing views on specific issues, but there are overriding principles that bind conservatism as a political force. If we are to believe the most recent polls, on Saturday voters in South Carolina, arguably the most conservative state in the nation, will be tusseling over John McCain or Mike Huckabee as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. There's only one problem: neither man is all that conservative say leading conservatives of our day. Fred Thompson, a formidable man with a strong conservative record, has...

Usually, when people say they’re not religious, they’re looking to pick a fight or at least start an argument. That’s probably because people who identify themselves as atheists or agnostics are often as dogmatic as Cotton Mather and have merely made a religion of their own non-belief. In my case, however, religion simply plays no role in my life. Or perhaps I should say institutionalized religion, seeing as how I very much subscribe to the Judeo-Christian value system. It’s the reason that I’m so grateful that two sets of Russian Jewish grandparents had the guts to pack up their kids...

When HaShem (God) dictated the Torah to Moses, that Written Law, or Torah She'bi-khetav, made God's laws known to His people.  This Truth, in all its glorious revelation, was to provide the Jewish people with instructions for daily living, how to celebrate their holidays, and the ways in which they should worship their Creator.  The Torah is also unambiguous on the behaviors that should be avoided and gives clear directions for atonement for sins committed.  Although the Written Law was considered complete, traditional Jewish teaching is that Moses also received a second set of laws called Torah She'bi-al peh: the...

Last week, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote a column titled "Secular Europe's Merits," in which he explained why he prefers the secularism of Europe to the religiosity of America. To his credit (other New York Times columnists do not generally agree to debate anything they write -- Paul Krugman, for example, has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me), Cohen agreed to come on my show, and proved to be a charming guest. A distinguished foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International Herald Tribune, Cohen nevertheless betrayed what I believe is endemic to those who...

A lifetime ban on public criticism of homosexuality was upheld against a Catholic activist in Canada by his province's superior court.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said yesterday that he hopes to convince voters that his Mormon faith is mainstream. "I think as people come to know my faith they'll recognize that the values of my faith are — they very much flow from the Judeo-Christian tradition of this country. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the equality of all humankind," Mr. Romney said in an interview with The Washington Times. [Snip] It is Mr. Romney's Mormon faith that remains a question mark in his presidential quest. The governor is a...

A few weeks ago I attended the annual dinner of the National Bible Association, which admirably seeks to promote the reading of the Bible across the United States. I was seated at a table with other Orthodox rabbis, one of whom had kindly invited me. Things did not go smoothly. One of the honorees was a Jewish-born Christian chaplain from the armed forces who spoke of his conversion away from Judaism and how he had chosen Jesus as his personal Messiah. Fair enough. People are free to believe what they want and, sadly, there are Jews who, sometimes out of...

When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible. Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity. This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened male-female love and sexuality (and thereby almost alone created the possibility...

What would you say if I told you that there is an American business that drops metric tons of toxic waste on your country and in your homes every day? I'm not talking about chemical waste or nuclear waste but toxins far more lethal - the byproducts of what's called entertainment, which are destroying the social environment. I refer to Hollywood, whose primary products are sex, violence, perversion, nihilism, attacks on religion and a thoroughgoing anti-family ethic. They are produced both for domestic consumption and export. It wasn't always so. As fans of old movies can attest, in the 1930s...

Every time I publish a column on the issues of race or race politics, I invariably get a slew of emails from white people who shower me with kudos for saying what’s been on their minds “forever” but which they have come to believe they cannot verbalize out of concern for being labeled racists. Many have employed phrases such as “I’ve given up” apropos expressing themselves due to the climate of Political Correctness, a hypersensitive minority subculture and opportunistic parasites commonly known as “civil rights activists.” Last week, a similar scenario played out very close to home, geographically-speaking, when FOX...

I'm not one to go down easy – never have been. Not on my watch! I call upon the conservative army across this nation to rise up and fight the tides of compromise and liberalism by standing strong on the core issues and showing its true colors now! In the spirit of Ronald Reagan, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our...

Churchill understood that the Jews are the bedrock of Western tradition. "Why should we Anglo-Saxons apologize for being superior?" Winston Churchill once growled in exasperation. "We are superior." Certainly Churchill's views of what he and other late Victorians called the "lesser races," such as blacks and East Indians, are very different from ours today. One might easily assume that a self-described reactionary like Churchill, holding such views, shared the anti-Semitism prevalent among Europe's ruling elites before the Holocaust. But he did not, as Martin Gilbert vividly shows in "Churchill and the Jews." By chronicling Churchill's warm dealings with English and...

At the Democrats' presidential debate last week, the candidates were asked to comment on issues pertaining to education. This was Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's response: "I've been asked the question over the years, 'What's the single most important issue?' I always say education because it is the answer to every other problem we confront as a people here." Needless to say, no other candidate took issue with Sen. Dodd, and it is likely that most senators, all the Democrats and many Republicans, would agree with the sentiment. But the sentiment is not only wrong, it is destructive. There are, of...

Huckabee is correct, "We are not a nation which penalizes the children because of the parents' sin." But when it comes to illegal immigration, even many conservatives indirectly advocate just that. We condemn those who abort even illegitimate babies from the womb, but condone (and sometimes commend) those who abort children from our "Christian" nation if their citizenship is illegitimate. Former Alabama Judge Roy Moore challenged us in one of his articles about illegals, "Should we demonstrate Christian love and concern for their salvation, or should we oppose amnesty legislation and enforce the immigration laws? The answer is yes –...

The Giuliani candidacy has polarized politically conservative Christians and Jews — perhaps less over Rudy’s position on abortion than, more subtly, over a question of emphasis. Who’s right? The Jewish “neoconservatives,” who make up more than half of Giuliani’s star foreign-policy advisory team (Norman Podhoretz, Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin, Martin Kramer, and David Frum)? Or Christians, like Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, who would not rule out supporting a third party candidate if Giuliani gets the nomination? To adjudicate the dispute, I propose an appeal to the part of the Bible on whose authority Jews (like myself) and Christians...

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/tissue_of_lies_the_jihad_again.html

Those who label Ann Coulter an anti-Semite do damage to the battle against anti-Semitism. I say this as a committed Jew, a religious Jew, a Jewish writer and lecturer, a past college instructor in Jewish history, co-author of a widely read book on anti-Semitism, recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's Prize for Excellence in Jewish Commentary, instructor in Torah at the American Jewish University, and a man who has fought anti-Semitism all his life. There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does...

...According to Scripture, however, believers are to be wary of all mortal powers. Their home is the kingdom of God, which transcends all earthly things, not any particular nation-state. The Psalmist advises believers to “put not your trust in princes.” The author of Job says that the Lord “shows no partiality to princes nor regards the rich above the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.” Before Pilate, Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And if, as Paul writes in Galatians, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man,...

A well-known evangelical leader is encouraging conservative Christians to give presidential hopeful Fred Thompson and all other candidates a fair chance not long after another prominent conservative leader criticized the former senator for being too weak on key issues. Although he doesn’t endorse Thompson, former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer contends that conservative Christians should seriously consider him if they want to avoid a “nightmare scenario” where they are forced to choose between two pro-abortion, pro-gay rights candidates – Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani. “He (Thompson)’s obviously against same-sex marriage. He doesn’t support quite the same constitutional amendment that some...

John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States, appointed by George Washington, wrote to Jedidiah Morse Feb. 28, 1797 (the same year the Treaty of Tripoli was ratified), "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." John Adams, America's second President and the same one who signed and sent the Treaty of Tripoli to the Senate, just one year later delivered these words in a military address Oct. 11, 1798, "Our...

A majority of Americans believe the nation's founders intended the United States to be a Christian nation, a new national survey revealed. In the First Amendment Center’s annual survey measuring attitudes toward freedom of religion, speech and press, 55 percent of Americans said they believe that the Constitution establishes a Christian nation. Furthermore, three out of four people who identify themselves as evangelical or Republican agree while about half of Democrats and independents do. Compared to previous years, more Americans were found to support Christian activities in public schools. Most respondents (58 percent) say teachers in public schools should be...

Most of the mainstream media is up in arms about a First Amendment Center poll showing that the majority of Americans (55%) believe that the Founding Fathers intended America to be a Christian nation. USA Today "reporter" Andrea Stone, for instance, must think she doubles as an editorialist. Her report in today's edition features loaded, biased opinions with words like "erroneous" (regarding most Americans' belief) and "scariest" regarding other numbers in the poll. christianamerica.jpg Frankly, as a Jew, I'm glad most Americans believe America was intended to be a Christian nation. And unlike Ms. Stone, I'm not so sure this...

No reader would be faulted for thinking that the title of this column is a spoof. After all, Reform Judaism, like liberal Christian denominations, is exquisitely sensitive to women's equality. Thus, Reform Judaism was the first major Jewish denomination to ordain women, and the first to have its seminaries discourage referring to God as "he." One would think, then, that the last thing the head of a movement devoted to women's equality would endorse is the covering of women's faces with a veil. This is one of the most dehumanizing and degrading practices that has ever been foisted on women....

Then he shall slaughter the people's sin-offering goat, and bringing its blood inside the veil, he shall do with it as he did with the bullock's blood, sprinkling it on the propitiatory and before it.  ~Leviticus 16:15Yom Kippur begins, this year, at sundown on September 21st.  This Day of Atonement, as prescribed in Leviticus and Numbers, has a very special, exceedingly significant meaning for Christians as we look back to the roots of our faith to understand how Christ fulfilled, and continues to fulfill, our need for propitiation.  Essentially, "propitiation" means to appease the wrath of God or to turn...

Religious studies should be taught in French state schools as an antidote to intolerance, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday in a speech that could upset the country's fiercely secular teaching establishment. France's official secularism fostered mutual respect and understanding but children should be taught in general terms about the world's great religions, he told teachers in this historic central city. Secularism has been the cornerstone of state education for more than 100 years after bitter battles between the state and the Roman Catholic church. Conspicuous religious symbols such as Muslim headscarves or large crosses are banned. "I am convinced...

We are now living in what some scholars call the "post-Christian West."By this they mean that Christianity no longer influences culture in Europe or in North America in a way that it once did. Of course there are many inherited influences still evident in the law, but for the past 50 years Europe, then the United States, has jettisoned Christian influences in arts and entertainment, politic, and education.It is becoming, some scholars say, an "ABC moment" -- "Anything But Christian."While well over 90 percent of Americans still say they believe in God, and many still identify as "Christian," the values...

But think about it. There are two components to Jesus' words. We are to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," but we are also to "render unto God the things that are God's." Well, everything ultimately belongs to God. But, most of all, this injunction by Jesus instructs us that government laws cannot trump God's laws – ever. If government commands you to do evil, as a Christian you must resist. There is no alternative. Citing the "render unto Caesar" line is an apologetic for accountability to God – nothing more, nothing less.

Why on earth did it cost six million dollars to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls to San Diego, and why has this exhibit become submerged in controversy? Hoping to shed some light on these matters, I decided to take a closer look at the parties involved. What I found was surprising evidence that members of several Christian fundamentalist organizations played a major role in creating the exhibit and choosing its content, a fact carefully covered up in the media campaign surrounding the exhibit's opening. For details, see my linked article.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – Washington is a city rich with powerful symbols. It is known for its monuments, memorials and corridors of power. And its big landmarks, the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument, will always loom large because of an 1899 law stipulating that no private structures in the city can be higher than either of them.In tourist season – early spring to late summer – visitors to the capital flock to the seats of government and monumental tributes to history with cameras always at the ready. But what they might not readily notice or capture for their photo albums...

Like the Olympics, it's a game that's played every four years. The media march out on the field in their ideologically matching blazers and try to convince the GOP to ditch social issues. Their pitch goes something like this: Republican voters are far more moderate than their party's platform. The day of the religious right has come and gone. With pro-life, pro-marriage stands, the party alienates legions of voters who agree with it on taxes, spending and defense. An article in the July 5 Wall Street Journal ("Giuliani Support Hints at Shift") argues, "Mr. Giuliani's lead in the polls -...

Monday night marked the Democrats' most interesting debate to date – which is to say, the audience fell unconscious about halfway through, as opposed to during the opening statements. But amid all of the technological hubbub and political jockeying, there was one question that stood out. The questioner was Rev. Reggie Longcrier, pastor of Exodus Mission and Outreach Church in Hickory, N.C. "Sen. Edwards said his opposition to gay marriage is influenced by his Southern Baptist background," Longcrier stated. "Most Americans agree it was wrong and unconstitutional to use religion to justify slavery, segregation and denying women the right to...

Fresh from the success of his latest agitprop promoting socialized medicine, "Sicko" filmmaker Michael Moore is considering whether he will use his next movie to teach us all a thing or two about the mind and will of God. That's right, call him the Rev. Michael Moore. Specifically, he intends to share his biblical wisdom regarding the issue of homosexuality and what he sees as irrational hatred of it. "I think it's a very ripe subject for someone like me to make a movie about," he told the homosexual magazine the Advocate. "Simply because we are not there yet and...

In just the last few months, three books attacking belief It is not due to their eloquence, originality or persuasiveness that these books have become best sellers. I believe other factors are at work. And they are: First and most significant is the amount of evil coming from within Islam. Whether Islamists (or jihadists, Islamo-Fascists or whatever else Muslims who slaughter innocents in the name of Islam are called) represent a small sliver of Muslims or considerably more than that, they have brought religious faith into terrible disrepute. How could they not? The one recognized genocide in the world today...

May the Lord be With You and Your Family Today

MUSLIMS are outraged that prospective citizens will have to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian tradition as the basis of Australia's values system. Australia's peak Muslim body said the proposed citizenship question - revealed in the Herald Sun - was disturbing and potentially divisive. Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali said the "Abrahamic tradition" or "universal values" would be less divisive ways of describing the nation's moral base. Dr Ali said use of the term Judeo-Christian was the result of "WWII guilt", and before 1945 Australia would have been called only Christian. "That question must be rephrased," he said. Dr...